Competitions
19 August 2025
DAIWA TACKLE & BATES WIN DIVISION ONE
In one of the closest results ever seen in the history of the Angling Trust Division One National, Daiwa Tackle & Bates were crowned champions by just three section points after a hot and testing five hours of fishing on the Warwickshire Avon!
Scoring 130 points from their 10 anglers, the East Anglian-based side emerged triumphant ahead of Daiwa Dorking on 133 points, the bronze medals going to Sensas Starlets on 135, outgoing champions Daiwa Gordon League taking fourth on 140 – that’s just 10 points covering the top four.
Fished across 50 miles of river from the narrow, shallow sections around Warwick, Barford and Wasperton at the top of the Avon down to the deeper, slower stretches at Twyning and Birlingham on the lower river, the Avon produced a great team match with plenty of methods needed and in the end, every fish caught making a difference, no matter how big or small.
Leading the way for the champs was old-hand Tony Watling with a second in section from H at Pershore, Gav Butler with fourth from E section at Abbots Salford and another legend in Mark Pollard with a sixth from a tough A section split between Warwick and Barford above the weir.
“We’re flabbergasted, we really are!” said a jubilant Tackle & Bates skipper Alex Bates. “We all felt that Dorking had won and that we might be about sixth. When the results were being read out, we thought we’d been missed off. We couldn’t be third, could we? Or second? No, we won it! Absolutely incredible – we’re all shocked. Absolutely delighted, but shocked!”
Although the team fish natural venues close to home, we’re talking drains and slow rivers of the fens, not such a varied venue as the Avon. To prepare, the side spent some time on the River Nene around Oundle, which is similar to the Avon, perfecting a range of methods.
“The Avon is so unique in that every peg is different never mind every section!” Alex explained. “You could forget about a team plan. Watercraft was the key, looking at the peg, plumbing up and seeing what you could and couldn’t do. The team has lots of experience with Tony and Polly but some great young lads that are at the top of their game and even though we’ve had some low scores, every fish has counted.”
“I think Mark Downes summed it up at the presentation best. In a teams of 10 match that’s so close, it’s not your section winners or seconds that win it for you. It’s the anglers who finish 20th and manage to grind out a few extra fish for an extra point or two that make the difference,” he added.
The Daiwa Tackle & Bates scorecard:
A section – Mark Pollard 6 points
B section – Alistair Ogilvie 10 points
C section – Steve Winter 23 points
D section – Kevin Green 7 points
E section – Gavin Butler 4 points
F section – Alex Bates 15 points
G section – Phil Chesterton 22 points
H section – Tony Watling 2 points
J section – Ray Malle 29 points
K section – James Drakulic 12 points
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If the race for team victory was close, it was equally tight in the individual stakes with only 300g separating first and second, Pelham AC man Tim Chapman just holding off the challenge of Sensas Mark One’s Martin Roper with 17-500 to 17-200!
As expected, it was bream that made the running, but not from the pre-match fancied sections at Pensham or Birlingham. Instead, Grimsby-based Tim drew peg 14 in H section at Pershore on the Birmingham AA water while Martin was down at Twyning in K section on the Droitwich Spa water, doing battle with peg 18.
Both anglers used feeder tactics with worm, maggot and caster, Tim enjoying a great final 90 minutes with a run of bream on the tip as he shared the shoal with Tony Watling on next-door peg 13, the two men taking first and second in the section. For Martin, things were a little easier as he won the section at a canter, netting both bream and skimmers.
That left the bronze medal to be decided, Daiwa Dorking’s Lewis Bray taking that with a 14-900 net of bream from peg 33 on F section at Twyford. He landed 12 fish in total, all caught in the opening two hours on the feeder before then sitting bitless for the rest of the match!
“In fairness, I got asked to fish by the club as they were a man short, so I didn’t want to let them down – thankfully I managed that,” said Tim. “I’m a bit overwhelmed to be National champion, as I’m no star name by any means! It was close, but sometimes I suppose it’s meant to be on the day.”
Tim fished the tip back-to-back, casting around 10ft off the far bank into 8ft of water. His first bream came after 40 minutes, but only after a 30-minute game of cat and mouse after the fish went into a snag and stuck solid.
“There was a steward and few bankrunners behind me and by slackening the line and putting the rod down, eventually I began to see the rod tip move again and the fish had swum out,” he recalled. “Around 10 minutes later I hooked another and the same thing happened! I got it out and landed it, but out of the next five fish I hooked, I only landed one and lost something that I can only think was a carp that broke me completely.”
Tackling back up with a cage feeder packed with sweet fishmeal groundbait holding a little chopped worm and a few dead maggots and using worm and three dead pinkies on the hook, when Tim finally got going again, there were no signs.
“I’d got three bream, so there was no point in fishing for small fish as I’d got good points,” he revealed. “I think I had nothing for the fourth hour but in the final 60 minutes, the swim kicked off and I landed six more bream, including three within a minute of the feeder landing. It was like fishing a totally different swim!”
“When I got back to the HQ, people asked what I’d got, and then the stories start. There was talk of a 17 kilo weight in J section that didn’t happen and then a few weights at Twyford too. Turns out the only other weight was Martin’s at Twyning – to win by 300g is incredible and could so easily have been the other way around,” Tim said. “I know what the snag was too. After the match the steward took me to the spare peg next door and I could see the bottom just a few feet from where I was landing the feeder. Apparently there used to be a lock gate there decades ago that collapsed and I was chucking into a deep hole surrounded by concrete and rubble!”
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Division One National – a list of thank yous!
This National has been 12 months in the planning and simply wouldn’t have happened without the guidance and assistance from anglers, clubs and associations who have given up their time to prepare the sections and pegs and to run practice matches.
Big thanks go to Kelvin Tallett and Mark Treasure, who have liaised with clubs and HQs, ensuring swims were clear, weed was removed and access opened up, as well as having a much-needed bar at the presentation afterwards!
Thanks to senior and team stewards for overseeing the anglers in getting to pegs, weighing everyone in and getting results back swiftly and efficiently. They’re the boots on the ground that mean the difference between a good match and a great match.
Finally the biggest thank you goes to the clubs, people and organisations listed below for use of waters and preparing swims that up until four months ago were overgrown. The amount of work these people have done has been staggering!
Warwick Portobello AC (Tony Butler and Chris Harrison)
Barford AA (Paul King and Shane Edwards)
Birmingham AA
Leamington Spa AC (Kelvin Tallett and Anthony Simmonds)
Droitwich Spa AC (Mike Watson)
Smith’s AC (Dave Whittaker, John Curtis and Graham Didcote)
Astwood Bank AC (Chris and Roger Burton)
Abbots Salford Caravan Park (Danny Rock)
Stratford-upon-Avon AC (Andy Bruce, Darren Cox and Stu Fleming)
Evesham DAA (Jay Proctor and Leigh Gardner)
Twyford AC (Andy Burt and James Robbins)
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*** For full results and section breakdowns from the Division One National, click the Hotfishin link below! ***
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Team result:
1 Daiwa Tackle & Bates, 130pts
2 Daiwa Dorking, 133
3 Sensas Starlets, 135
4 Daiwa Gordon League, 140
5 Drennan Barnsley Blacks, 159
6 Nufish/SonuBaits Ossett, 162
7 Milo Bait-Tech West Midlands, 163
8 Matrix Dynamite Baits Image, 182
9 Preston Innovations Thatcher’s, 186
10 Drennan Leicester Van Den Eynde, 195
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Individual result:
1 Tim Chapman, Pelham AC, 17-500 peg 14 Pershore 14
2 Martin Roper, Sensas Mark One, 17-200 peg 18 Twyning K
3 Lewis Bray, Daiwa Dorking, 14-900 peg 33 Twyford F
4 Chris Ballard, Milo Bait-Tech West Midlands, 14-320 peg 1 Birlingham J
5 Mark Derry, Drennan Leicester Van Den Eynde, 13-830 peg 32 Twyford F
6 Dave Stenson, Matrix Halifax, 11-440 peg 21 Seven Meadows D
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Section winners:
A – Shaun Bryan, Milo Bait-Tech West Midlands, 6-620 peg 45
B – Jim Brockie, Daiwa Gordon League, 7-200 peg 10
C – Dave Hiley, Nufish/SonuBaits Ossett, 4-600 peg 5
D – Dave Stenson, Matrix Halifax, 11-440 peg 21
E – Steve Hemingray, Sensas Starlets, 3-130 peg 5
F – Lewis Bray, Daiwa Dorking, 14-900 peg 33
G – Jonny Plows, Tri-Cast Calder, 4-200 peg 3
H – Tim Chapman, Pelham AC, 17-500 peg 14
J – Chris Ballard, Milo Bait-Tech West Midlands, 14-320 peg 1
K – Martin Roper, Sensas Mark One, 17-200 peg 18
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